Follow this blog with bloglovin

Tawny Bee's Fan Box

Twitter Update

Twitter Updates

As Featured On

Networked Blogs

Saturday, 31 May 2008

Once upon a warm and sunny day, Lord Terry decided that it was too hot in his castle. He crept down to the deep dark basement to retrieve on object that would cool his kingdom.

Terry brought this floor fan up to his chambers where he plugged it in. It started whirring and created the nicest breezes all through the night. When the night was over, he shut if off and left it to look over the place while he was away.

Logan happened into Lord Terry's room that day and saw the most evil, sinister thing staring him down from head to toe. He ran away screaming into Tawny's arms.

Tawny tried to reassure him that mommy would never let anything bad happen to poor little Logan, and that the fan was nothing to be afraid of. It didn't work.

Next she tried to put the fan away in the closet while the family wasn't using it to keep cool. Logan would play for a little while, and then point to the closet and run to mommy for comfort.

Finally Lord Terry realized that the family wasn't going to get a nice rest at night, even if it was cool, because they would be awoken out of their slumber by a frightened child. So he put the sinister object back down in the dungeon basement to be punished for causing such terror and unrest in the kingdom.

Terry and Tawny lived happily, if not a little warmly, ever after. Logan lived happily ever after... that is until we decide to pull out the air conditioner!!!!

The fan is busy causing fright and terror to little children who venture down to the dungeon to help mommy with laundry or to retrieve freezer items with daddy.

Saturday, 24 May 2008

On a side note before I begin the blog: This is Team T-Lo's 100th post! Yay!

OK now back to our regularly scheduled blogging -

Logan had his first visit to the Winnipeg Assiniboine Park Zoo. And all of a sudden, all the animals that he read about in books are alive! In front of him! Wow! Boy did he enjoy himself. It was a beautiful day and we got there early so there was plenty of space and time to wonder about and look at the furry, scaly and feathered creatures.

Logan enjoyed the bears very much. Below is a picture of daddy and Logan watching the black bears.

We also saw the monkeys. But Logan was more interested in all the little kids around him than with the creatures in the cages that he wasn't allowed to touch. When we got to the big horn sheep though, Terry and I were reading the little blurb outside the cage and said "sheep." Logan picked up on that right away and started saying, "Baaa Baaa." What a smarty pants!

By far the best part of the trip was when Logan got to see his beloved flamingos. There are some sewn onto the quilt that he sleeps on for his nap every afternoon and he loves it when I repeat "flamingos, flamingos" every time he points to them. So to see them in person was a treat indeed.

We also got a pretty good view of a croc! Scary!

What an exciting and exhausting day for the little guy. And he can't wait to go back for another visit!

Friday, 16 May 2008

What can I say about this group of books. There are two romances, because I like romances. There is one non-fiction about an historical figure that I always wanted to know about. There is another book about another historical figure, only this time it's fiction. And of course, Logan reviews one of the very first board books he ever owned. Enjoy and pay attention to some of the reviews because I'm giving away some of these books to interested readers!

I started reading this book knowing hardly anything about Mao. I finished knowing more than I would ever need to know.

This small book was so packed full of information that my head was swimming after each reading session.

I think this would be a great place to start if you were studying Chinese history or world leaders. But it was way to complicated to read just as a biography like I did. So 3 stars because it made me feel like I was back in school trying to remember everything and follow along.

This is one of the books I'm giving away to a good home. Please let me know if you would like me to send it to you. I'll ship almost anywhere in the world as long as you give me a good reason as to why you want to read it.

2)On FireAuthor: Carla NeggersMira Publishing, November 2003

Tawny Review:3 out of 5 stars

I'm not really interested in the inner workings of an oceanographic center, so I couldn't really get behind the plot of this book. It just doesn't hold any intrigue for me. But I will say that the characters were written well. I liked Riley and Straker as a couple and was rooting for them.

There were way too many characters and relationships in this novel. I couldn't tell who was who and who were supposed to be related. Even at the end of the book I found myself wanting to go back and remind myself who a certain character was and why he/she was important. Maybe it was because I took longer to read this book than normal, or maybe the secondary characters weren't written with enough pop to make them memorable.

I liked the kind of soapopera-ness feel of this book. The two main characters exchanged some witty and sometimes funny dialog that I enjoyed very much.

3)

To Love A TexanAuthor: Georgina GentryZebra Publishing, January 2007

Tawny Review:4 out of 5 stars

This book certainly isn't for anyone who is hoping for a meaningful, deep read. Instead, it was fun and light and totally silly. I loved it! I love any romance that starts with a prim character (this character was actually named Ms. Primm... awesome!) getting in way over her head. In this case, she inherits a "hotel" and finds out that it's not the kind of hotel she thought. What? That never happens! Hahaha.

This seems to be a running theme in old west romance novels. There is always a brothel involved. And I love every single one of them. This one was particularly entertaining because the battle of the sexes between the straight-laced Ms. Primm and the sexy cowboy Brad O'Neal was funny, hot, and soapish. Love it!

4)Rasputin's DaughterAuthor: Robert AlexanderPenguin Publishing, 2006

Tawny Review:3 out of 5 stars

I had high hopes for this novel. Ever since I first heard the muths about Rasputin, I was intrigued. Unfortunately, this book didn't give me any satisfaction.

The purpose seemed to be to dispel the myths surrounding Rasputin's death. That was fine, but the alternative wasn't at all interesting enough for a whole novel.

But I didn't put the book down either and the character of Maria Rasputin was well written. It's fun to imagine what a daughter would be thinking during those tumultuous times and Alexander did a credible job at that.

This book is another one that I'm giving away to a good home. If you are at all interested in Russian history, let me know and I'll send this one to you. I'd love to hear what you think!

Saturday, 10 May 2008

If you've been living under a rock I apologize for talking about something that has been all over the news in the past weeks. Canadian stores have been pulling baby bottles containing Bisphenol-A (or BPA) off of their shelves. This is a good thing since BPA has been linked to hormone disruptions.

Of course, this is news we all could have used YESTERDAY!!!! (I say this in the fashion of Adam Sandler). It has recently come to our attention that the Avent bottles that used for Logan have a dangerous amount of the stuff in them. More, in fact, than most baby bottles. Well, it's too late to do anything about that and I'm sure it won't make much of a difference in the long run. Imagine all the crazy things that our parents used for us that wouldn't be acceptable today. Oh yeah, mom and dad, I remember scooting around in one of those death traps on wheels called a walker.

It is easy to tell if something you have contains BPA. Look at that lovely recycling symbol on the bottom of the cup or whatever. You know, the one with the triangular arrows on it. If the number in the centre of that triangle is a "7" then it is baaaaaadddddd. Throw it away or risk the giant BPA monster. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Logan's sippy cups are a respectable "5", so he's safe from harm until the next scare enters our field of vision. However, not all is safe in the Team T-Lo abode. We have been threatened to our very core by the BPA monster. OUR SLURPEE CUPS ARE 7'S!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!ACK!!!!!

What a thing to discover. Don't worry, the regular cups in the 7-Eleven are 5's, so if you're not cheap and buy a new one, you're safe. But Terry and I always use the refill cups that we purchased last summer. Those lovely Simpson's Squishee ones that took us months to collect.

I innocently turned one of those cups over the other day. Lo and behold, there was a 7 staring me in the face. Bah! BPA is now a big pain in my ass. How dare it threaten our life nectar?

We've since made Logan stop playing with these cups, but we are still using them for refills. Our cheap bone has outweighed our health bone in this case. Once 7-Eleven has a new promotion that we can get behind, we'll buy new ones. We promise.

For anyone interested in what all those recycling symbols mean, below is a summary:

#1 PETE or PET (polyethylene terephthalate): used for most clear beverage bottles.

#5 PP (polypropylene): used in rigid containers, including some baby bottles, and some cups and bowls.

#6 PS (polystyrene): used in foam "clam-shell"-type containers, meat and bakery trays, and in its rigid form, clear take-out containers, some plastic cutlery and cups. Polystyrene may leach styrene into food it comes into contact with. A recent study in Environmental Health Perspectives concluded that some styrene compounds leaching from food containers are estrogenic (meaning they can disrupt normal hormonal functioning). Styrene is also considered a possible human carcinogen by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

#7 Other (usually polycarbonate): used in 5-gallon water bottles, some baby bottles, some metal can linings. Polycarbonate can release its primary building block, bisphenol A, another suspected hormone disruptor, into liquids and foods. In 1998, the Japanese government ordered manufacturers there to recall and destroy polycarbonate tableware meant for use by children because it contained excessive amounts of bisphenol A. Other sources of potential bisphenol A exposure include food can linings and dental sealants.

Saturday, 3 May 2008

Logan is just like his father in the way that he has to do everything at full strength. There is no middle ground. It's all or nothing. That is how things tend to get broken around here. Logan wants to read a book, but he tears it apart instead. He wants mommy to play with a toy, so he shoves it in my face. He gets excited about typing on dad's keyboard and ends up banging on the thing until a key falls off. It's totally not an anger issue with them or anything, they just don't know their own strength and they like to give everything their focused attention.

So the new lesson for Logan this week: Be Gentle!

Terry has learned the Be Gentle lesson after living with me for 7 years. He's gotta tone it down sometimes. I'm is a lot smaller than him, so he's gotta be less "death grip" and more "bear hug" hehehe.

Logan is slowly learning this lesson. We were outside playing with the ladybugs this week and Logan needed to Be Gentle with them. He didn't smush them or even poke them too hard with a stick. He was very nice and pointed at them crawling on his pants and clapped his hands instead. Good boy!